Seal press



Patented Aug. 26, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFlcE.

HERMAN H. WENTIIE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MEYER 8a WENTHE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A COIARTNERSHIP CONSISTING OF GUSTAVE A. MEYER AND HERMAN H. VENTHE.

SEAL PRESS.

T 0 L7/Z LU/wm it may concern.'

Be it known that I, HERMAN II. VVENTHE, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Seal Press; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to seal presses in which one die portion is continuously urged away from the other die portion by a spring, and in which the die portions are approached by the movement of a suitably disposed lever. Generally speaking, my invention aims to provide a novel construction and arrangement of the spring means for urging the cooperating die portions away from each other, aims to provide novel and conveniently disposed means for latching the operating lever in a certain position, and aims to provide a simple and inexpensive mounting for the spring and the latching means, together with simple means for holding the latching means in either the latching o.'l unlatching position.

Viewed in some of its more particular aspects, my invention provides a retracting spring adapted to. be housed entirely in the upper portion of the press body so as not to require the lower portion of the body to be hollowed out; provides a spring for this purpose which can readily be formed of a resilient wire and which will exert an effective. spring action through a considerable range of movement while occupying a relatively small space; and also provides simple means for holding such a. spring in its operative position.

I `urthermore, my invention provides latching means in which the movable latching member is carried by the lever of the press; provides simple means for guiding the latching member, which guide means can readily be made integral with a handled lever formed of sheet metal; provides a latching member having stop formations engaging the guide means to limit the movement of the latching member in each direction; provides friction meansv for preventing an accidental movement of the latching member, and desirably employs the said guide means for Serial No. 653,126.

holding the friction member in its operative position.

Moreover, my invention provides simple means on the press body for interlocking with the latching member and desirably disposes the last named means so that the same will also serve the purpose of retaining the spring in proper position within the body of the press when other parts of the press are detached from this body. Still further and also more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings in which- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a seal press of a pocket type embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a central and longitudinal section through the same press.

Fig. 3 is a section similar to a portion ot' Fig. 2, but taken with the lever in its depressed position to show the locking operation of the latching member.

Fig. l is a fragmentary bottom view of the lever, showing the disposition of the latching member on the same.

Fig. 5 is a transverse section through the handle of the lever, showing the mounting of the latching member.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the spring employed in the press` Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the mow able die plate with the linger-carrying sleeve bolted to the same.

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary plan view of the press with the handled lever and the. spring omitted, showing the guiding of the lifting finger by the walls of the chamber in the press body, and also showing the pin which cooperates with the latching member on the handle.

In the drawings, I am showing an embodiment similar in some features to that shown in U. S. Patent No. 1,253,756 issued to me January 15, 1918 on an impression seal. In that patent I disclosed a press construction employing a hollow metal body formed of sheet metal and having a dieraising spring disposed within this hollow body and extending through both the upper and lower portions of this body.

In practice, variations in the drawing of the metal make it difficult to form metal bodies of this type with the desired degree of eXactness, and the availability of tine aluminum castings make a cast body desirable as a substitute for pressed steel bodies. However, while the cast aluminum a'l'l'ords the desired lightness, it does not vreadily lend itself to such an extensive `amount of coring as'would be required for videdv at its rear end with a looped handle 2 and provided at its forward end with a disk portion 3 upon which the lead counterpart l of the engraved die 5 is formeel. This die 5 is threaded upon the lower end ofv a bolt 6 extending through a sleeve 7, and the said sleeve is slidable in a vertical bore which merges at one side into a chamber 9 formed in the upper part of the press body. The sleeve 7 desirably has its lower end equipped with teeth for engaging the upper end of the stem 10 of the die 5, so asI to prevent' this die from rotating with respect to the sleeve, and the sleeve also carries a finger 11 extending laterally into the chamber 9 and guided laterally by the walls of that chamber adjacent to the vertical bore in which the sleeve slid-es, thereby preventing the stem. 6 and the die plate 5 from rotating with respect to the press cody and the counter die l after the manner disclosed in my said U. Si Patent No. 1,253,756.

Interposed between the linger 11 and the bottom. 12 of the chamber 9 isa compression spring 13 which has its lower arm portions in engagement with the said bottom and which has an upper arm portion underhanging and continuously engaging the linger 11. For this purpose, I desir-ably employ a spring formed of a single strand of resilientv wire doubled upon itself to form a bight 111 adapted to underhang and engage the finger 11, the doubled wire having an upper arm portion 15 leading from this bight and connected by a coiled portion 16 to lower arms 17, and also having a bend between the upper arm portion 15 and the bight portion 14 as shown in Fig. 6. Each of the lower arms 17 desirably terminates in a downwardl bent tip portion 18 which normally extends through a corresponding perforation in the bottom 12 of the chamber in the press body, so that these perforations together with the underhanging of the linger 11 by the big'ht 14 of the spring cooperate in retaining the spring in its operative position without requiring auxiliary fastening members. rlhe spring as thus described is desirably formed originallits rearward sliding.

ly with its upper and lower arms 15 and 17 diverging at a considerable angle after the manner shown in Fig. 6, so that when the spring is in its normal position, it is continually under compression. Owing to this compression, it continuously tends to lift the sleeve 7 and the movable die 5 which is clamped to this sleeve by the bolt 6, the extent of the liftingl movement being limited by they engagement of the stem 10 of the movable die with vthe bottom of` the upper portion as shown in` Fig. 2.

To move the said sleeve and the die plate 5 downwardly against resistance of the spring, I desirably employ a forked lever pivoted to the press body on a pivot pin 19 and having a handle 2O overhanging the press body, this lever having a pair of rollers 31 continuously engaging the top of the die plate 5 at opposite sides of the bolt 6. The lever as thus arranged desirably has its main portion formedl from .a single piece of sheet metal and preferably has its handle portion of a downwardly concaved section as shown in Fig.. 5.

To. latch the lever in its depressed position when the seal: pressis not in use, I mount a latching member 22 on the handle 2O and provide a latching pin 21 on the press body adapted. to be underhung by the said latching member. With this in mind, I desirably punch two. pairs of opposed guide ears 23 and 33 from the meta-l of the handle, wit-h the ears of each pair extending towards each other within the concaved handle formation so as to present upper surfaces spaced from the adjacent bottom portions of the handle, thereby affording a space in which the latching mem-ber can slide back and forth. To move it for this purpose, I bendy the rear end of thelatching member downwardly to afford a lingerpiece 24 which can readily be reached by a linger of the hand holding the press, so that the user can manipulate the press` with one hand if he so desires. This finger-piece desirably is so positioned that it can engage the rear pair of guide ears 33 to limit the forward slid-ing movement of the la-tching member as shown in Fig. 3 and the latch'- ing member desirably has a bend formed in the same and adapted to engage the forward guide ears 23 as shown in Fig. 2 tolimit To prevent the latching member from accidentally sliding out of the position t-o which it has been digitally moved, I provide suitable friction means associated with it. `F or this purpose,'I am here sho-wing a U-shaped spring 25 formed of wire and having itsv b-ight engaging the lower face of the latching member, this` springbeing retained in one positionby having its bight butt against Aforward guide fingers@ 23- and having its shanlrs extending under the rear guide fingers 23 at opposite sides of the latching member.

By employing a substantially U-shaped spring, l am able to dispose. this in its entirety within a chamber formed only in the upper part of the body of the press, thereby simplifying the casting to a form which can readily be manufactured out of cast metal. Moreover, when the die is detached by unscrewing the bolt 6, the latching pin 2l engages the upper arm portions of the spring` so as to serve as a guard for retaining the spring within the chamber 9 without requiring any auxiliary means for this purpose. Since this pin, which extends across the chamber 9 as shown in Fig; 8, is the only additional member required as part of the latching arrangement which is/ not formed integral with the press body and lever, it will be obvious that the entire construction is exceedingly simple and inexpensive. Furthermore, while the linger-piece 2l is within easy reach of the user of the press, this finger-piece cannot swing into the path of the lever after the manner of latching hooks heretofore employed in such presses, nor will the friction spring permit it to shift out of the position to which it has been moved by the user of the press.

However, while I have illustrated and described my invention as embodied in a portable press having a ring-shaped handle at one end of the body, and one in which the guides for the movable latching member are formed integral with the handle, I do not wish to be limited to these or other details of the construction and arrangement thus disclosed. Obviously, many modifications might be made without departing either from the spirit of my invention o-r` from the appended claims.

l claim as my invention Tl. In a seal press, a body having spaced horizontal upper and lower arms, a die on the lower arm, the upper arm having a vertical bore and a chamber extending laterally from the bore, a die-carrying plunger slidable in the bore, a finger lixed to the plunger and extending within the chamber, a lever for operating the plunger, and a spring carried in its entirety by the upper arm and disposed within the chamber and engaged with and between the finger and the bottom wall of the chamber.

2. In a seal press, a body having spaced horizontal upper and lower arms, a die on the lower arm, the upper arm having a vertical bore and a chamber extending laterally from the bore, a die-carrying plunger slidable in the bore, a linger liXed to the plunger and extending within the chamber, a lever for operating the plunger, and a spring carried in its entirety by the upper arm and composed of a length of wire. doubled upon itself intermediate its ends to form upper arms and lower arms each connected by a coiled portion, the upper arms being engaged with said linger and the lower arms having free ends which are turned downwardly and engaged in perforations provided therefor in the bottom wall of the chamber.

ln a seal press, a body having spaced horizontal upper and lower arms, a die on the lower arm, the` upper arm, having a vertical bore and a lateral chamber communieating therewith, a die-carrying plunger slidable in the bore, a lever for operating the plunger, and a spring carried in its entirety by the upper arm and engaged with the plunger and with the bottom wall of the chamber.

et. In a seal press, a body having spaced horizontal upper and lower arms, a die on the lower arm, the upper arm having a vertical bore and a lateral chamber communieating therewith, a removable die-carrying plunger, slidable in the bore, a lever for operating the plunger, a spring in the chamber engaged with the plunger to tension same, a pin extending across the plunger in a position to engage the spring and retain same in the chamber upon removal of the plunger, and latching means carried by the lever and movable into the chamber and in engagement with the pin to retain the lever in depressed position against the tension of the spring.

5. In a seal press, a body having spaced horizontal upper and lower arms, a die on the lower arm, the upper arm having a verical bore and a lateral chamber communi.n eating therewith, a die carrying plunger slidable in the bore, a spring means in the chamber for tensioning the plunger, a lever for operating the plunger, a keeper in the chamber, and a latch carried by the lever and movable into the chamber and in engagement with said keeper to hold the lever depressed against the tension of the spring said plunger being removable and said keeper being disposed so as to engage the spring means and retain same in the chamber upon removal of the plunger.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, July 20th, 1923.

HERMAN H. WENTHE. 

